1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for identifying visitors more particularly, to a system for storing the visitor's image as sensed by an identification device while the owner of the premises is absent and subsequently reconfirming, the identity of the image by using a general purpose home computer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, using computers enable not only factories and laboratories but also family homes to automate. Contemporary designs for home automation systems typically identify visitors and control electric home appliances by using a communication apparatus. For example, there are systems for controlling the temperature automatically according to a preset temperature in summer and in winter, preparing dinner before returning home, opening the door automatically in response to the host's face and fingerprint, and identifying the coming and going of visitors.
An earlier design of a system for identifying visitors includes a CCTV (closed-circuit television) camera for outputting image data by reading images of visitors, a monitor for displaying the image data outputted from the CCTV camera and the image storing device for storing image data for identifying visitors. The CCTV camera includes a CCD (charge coupled device) for receiving the visitors image and for generating data according to the brightness of the light, and a driving circuit for processing the image signal received from the CCD and in order to provide data to the monitor or the image memory. In this type of design, the CCD receives the visitor's image and outputs an electrical signal according to the brightness of the light, the driving circuit receives the image from the CCD and transmits the image to the monitor, and the image data is displayed on the screen of the monitor, and the image storing device can replay data whenever required by the user.
I have found that with the designs of contemporary systems, the owners use the image storing device to stores and process the images of visitors through the CCTV camera in order to identify visitors while the user is absent from the premises.
The earlier image storing systems require their own place of installation and were relatively expensive. Also, the earlier systems stored and processed an image continuously during regular hours. So, there are problems that the power consumption is large and the image storing device searches from beginning to end when identifying visitors again.
One example of contemporary practice, Lee, U.S. Pat. No. 5,142,604 for System And Method For Picture Interphone Using Camcorder And TV, discloses a typical prior art arrangement using a TV monitor and a camcorder. The prior art device requires an expensive image storing device (that is--the camcorder) and further requires that the user search the video tape in sequence from the beginning to the end in order to identify the visitors. On the other hand, the present invention only requires a general purpose home computer having a multi-media function and a CCTV camera. The present invention does not use expensive equipment and enables the owner to perform the function of editing and identifying data easily and without the necessity of resorting to reviewing an entire video tape.